San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is so big and so packed with things to see and do that you could visit a dozen times and barely scratch the surface. I’ve taken a spin through this beloved green space any number of times, and it never fails to absolutely delight me.

Of course the park is home to major attractions like the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young Museum, and recreational diversions include everything from archery to fly fishing to disc golf. But it’s the gardens and tucked-away nooks that I keep returning to.
I love the fact that in a park this crowded with people—especially on weekends—there are places just steps off the street that can make you forget you’re in the middle of a big city. And I’m going to share a few of them.  
I couldn’t have picked a better May day for this jaunt: bright blue sky, a few puffy clouds and 65 degrees. That’s great walking weather. My first destination was the John McLaren Memorial Rhododendron Dell, off John F. Kennedy Drive near the Academy of Sciences (parking is permitted along the curb unless signs dictate otherwise).

The dell is dedicated to the man who served as Golden Gate Park’s superintendent for 53 years—and who was largely responsible for transforming an area of windswept sand dunes into a lush, tree-filled oasis. A statue of McLaren holding a pine cone stands at the entrance.

May and June are the peak blooming months for rhododendrons, so my timing was right on. Clusters of creamy white and deep pink flowers covered the bushes. You can follow the paved walking paths through the dell, and there’s a winding wooden staircase that leads to the top of a hill and a couple of secluded benches.

I also started wandering down narrow mulched paths overarched by tall eucalyptus trees. Ivy vines snaked up the tree trunks, cloaking them in a mass of glossy green, and in the deep, damp shade the scent of eucalyptus was intoxicatingly aromatic. Traffic noises and human voices faded away. Nice!

If you keep meandering down one of these paths—or backtrack to JFK Drive and turn right—you’ll cross over into the Primitive Plant Garden. The plants here include stout-trunked cycads and exotic tree ferns, and they do indeed look ancient (some cycad fossils are estimated to date back more than 250 million years). This is another lush, shady area of the park, crisscrossed with paths that you can amble along. And fortunately, no fiberglass dinosaurs lurk around the bend to add “atmosphere.”

There’s a lily pond here that really does look prehistoric, thanks to a dense growth of duckweed. This algae-like plant completely covers the pond’s surface like a green blanket. Turtles sunned themselves on top of floating logs. The only sound was the chirping of birds. I took a few photos and enjoyed the silence.

My reverie was briefly interrupted when a Segway tour made a stop at the pond. I overheard the tour guide relate an interesting story about how it was filled with African clawed frogs, an aggressive, invasive species that kills off the indigenous frogs and fish. An article about the infestation appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle several years ago, with the juicier details embellished to the point that the marauding amphibians were said to be as big as bowling balls (actual size: a still-impressive 5 inches) and armed with razor-sharp teeth. Alas, I didn’t spot one of the little beasts.

From the Primitive Plant Garden, I took Middle Drive East and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to the middle section of the park and Stow Lake. This man-made body of water is actually a moat that encircles Strawberry Hill, a large island in the middle. You can walk completely around the lake or cross over to Strawberry Hill via the stone Roman bridge (just past the boathouse on the lake’s north side).

It’s a fairly strenuous climb up a series of stone steps and dirt paths to the summit, which at 400 feet is Golden Gate Park’s highest point. There are glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Marin Headlands through the trees. It’s also cool, shady and windy at the top; I had to put on my hoodie, which had spent the afternoon tied around my waist.

On the way down I stopped briefly at the Chinese Pavilion, a gift from Taipei, San Francisco’s sister city.  It stands serenely on the inner shore of Stow Lake. From the pavilion I backtracked around the lake, ending up at a designated meeting point right outside the Japanese Tea Garden—where a friend picked me up in his car. That’s a perfect way to end an afternoon exploring this crown jewel of a park.